Top 10 Art-Oriented Software Programs
Guide Picks
From Sue Chastain,Your Guide to Graphics Software.
These art-oriented software programs are designed especially for painting, drawing, coloring, and creating original art work. Although some of them also offers tools for working with pre-existing images, the emphasis is on art and the creation process. Most of them have tools to mimic traditional artistic media such as oils, watercolors, acrylics, pencils, markers, crayons, chalk, pastels, and felt pens. Many of them also offer a variety of unusual, non-traditional tools. (Updated: Nov. 2004)
1) Corel Painter (Windows and Macintosh)
Corel Painter is like a well-stocked artist's studio, without the mess. With textured surfaces, brushes, and tools, you can mimic painting and drawing with chalk, pastels, watercolors, oils, crayons, pencil, felt pens, ink, and more. Painter also offers non-traditional tools such as image hose, pattern pens, cloners, and special effects. While its strong point is its artistic toolset, Painter also offers features for photo enhancement, Web graphics creation, animation, and working with text.
2) Microsoft Expression - Free (Windows and Macintosh)
Expression was the first graphics program to allow users to create brush strokes from arbitrary pictures, and remains the most artistically-oriented vector-based drawing package today. Other drawing programs have tried to imitate its object-stroked paths concept, but few reach the level of flexibility and variety offered by Expression. You'll need to have artistic ability and a strong desire to explore this program, but it's obvious that once you do, you can do truly amazing things with it.
3) ArtRage - Free (Windows)
ArtRage is a fun little free program for experimenting with digital art. Although it has some annoying bugs and limitations, it's very user-friendly and could not be easier to learn. Even young children should have no problem learning this software. If you're not sure if digital art is for you, this is a nice way to find out without spending a dime.
4) Alias SketchBook Pro (Windows and Macintosh)
Alias SketchBook Pro is an innovative freehand drawing and painting program designed specifically for Tablet PC and graphics tablet users on Windows and Macintosh. Although it does not offer the same variety as other artistic software, it is extremely easy to learn and use. If you've been frustrated or overwhelmed by the complexity of other painting/drawing programs, SketchBook Pro is a great way to sketch out ideas, annotate images, and explore computer-based drawing.
5) Deep Paint (Windows)
Deep Paint is a standalone program and Photoshop-compatible plug-in that brings real-time material-based 3D paint rendering to your digital art. This means that Deep Paint offers tools that feel natural and work more like traditional drawing and painting tools. Paint has thickness and shine, your canvas has texture, lighting can be adjusted, and brushes are fully customizable. Using Deep Paint with a pressure-sensitive tablet feels incredibly like working with real-life tools.
6) Project Dogwaffle - Free (Windows)
Project Dogwaffle, "the unnatural paint program," is a painting and animation program for Windows with many unique tools for creating pictures. The interface is quirky, but it looks like it has much to offer creative people who are willing to explore it. You can create your own brushes (including animated brushes), mix colors naturally, and apply a number of special effects. There is a free version of Project Dogwaffle which is quite powerful, or you can upgrade to the full version for US$67.
7) Deleter CGillust (Windows)
If you're into the Anime and Manga illustration style of Japanese comics, have a look at Deleter CGillust, a computer drawing software originally developed in Japan and designed for drawing in the Manga style. Use the "Event file" feature, users can save and play back all the steps of how an illustration is created. A trial version of CGillust is available for download from the Web site, and the software can be purchased for $60 US.
8) Pixarra TwistedBrush (Windows)
TwistedBrush is an art program that aims to be powerful enough for a professional artist but simple enough for the beginner. It offers a collection of realistic natural brushes for media such as watercolors, oils, acrylics, pastels, oil pastels, charcoal, pens, pencils, and markers. I have not used TwistedBrush, but based on my research, it offers a powerful brush engine, a familiar interface, and is often described as fun. You can try the program free for 15 days and it costs $70 to buy.
9) PhotoArtMaster (Windows)
With PhotoArtMaster Gold you can transform ordinary—even boring—photographs into something you'd be proud to frame and put on display. PhotoArtMaster provides starting points and tools, but you create the magic. Although it requires some practice and experimentation, there's nothing else like it for turning photos into art prints. Unlike some similarly advertised products, the images you create in PhotoArtMaster really are your own unique creations—not like one-click computer-generated "art."
10) Studio Artist (Macintosh)
Studio Artist is an award-winning painting, drawing, image- and video-processing application for Macintosh. Called a "graphics synthesizer" by the company that produces it, it's based on the concepts of music synthesis, cognitive neuroscience and visual perception resulting in a software program that "knows how to paint and draw." Users can paint and draw manually with configurable tools, or they can use automatic painting actions to intelligently paint an image with artistic effects.
Important product disclaimer information about this About site.